KPFA - Pushing Limits

Executive Director Catherine Blakemore, from Disability Rights California, will discuss the work of her agency and the role of non profits in the disability community. "DRC is one of the highest funded disability non profits doing work in California and also one of the most successful" says co-host Eddie Ytuarte. But the question is do non profits operate under too narrow a charge and are they just too conservative–that is what Pushing Limits wants to pursue.  

Co host is Leah Gardner

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Take a good look in the mirror.  Do you feel pride in what you see? Beauty in the face of invisibility is the theme of this week's Pushing Limits.  On Friday, October 30th on Pushing Limits, Leah Gardner will interview Patricia Berne and Nomy Lamm from a groundbreaking organization called Sins Invalid.  This troupe of artists and performers use storytelling, music and dance to demonstrate that disabled bodies are beautiful.  Artistic director Patricia Berne and performer Nomy Lamm will discuss their work with Sins Invalid as well as breaking down the barriers of shame and fear to create beauty.

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Critical cuts to people with disabilities who rely on California’s In Home Support Services (IHSS)
have begun. Pushing Limits talks to Bobby Bogan, Executive Director of Seniors Organizing Seniors. Bogan sees both fear and courage as the State of California implements massive cuts.

On November 1st, 130 thousand people will be reduced or axed from the IHSS program.  Over
450 thousand people face unannounced home visits and routine fingerprinting.  Seniors, people living with AIDS and the developmentally disabled community face similar and overlapping slashes to programs they depend on.

Bobby Bogan’s San Franciso organization based in the South of Market area, Seniors Organizing
Seniors, deals with the effect of these cuts first hand. He joins Pushing Limits producers, Eddie Ytuarte, Adrienne Lauby and Nick Feldman, for stories of resistance, community self-help, and advice about appealing individual cuts.

Archives of this program can be found for fourteen days at:
http://www.kpfa.org/pushing-limits

Podcast and Live Streaming available at www.kpfa.org

Photos and website links: http://pushinglimitsradio.blogspot.com/

Pushing Limits is produced collectively and open to new members.  Contact us. Tell us what you think about what you hear.

Contact:
(510) 848-6767 ext. 636
[email protected]

The post Pushing Limits – Service Cuts – Will You Stand With Us? appeared first on KPFA.

“Wildfires, Earthquakes, and Hurricanes… Oh My”

Are people with disabilities ready for a disaster? We talk to Ana-Marie Jones and Tracy Baker of Collaborating Agencies Responding to Disaster (CARD) about how to prepare. And, Karla Gilbride, of Disability Rights Advocates, a Berkeley legal non-profit, talks about their suit against both Oakland and L.A. for their lack disability access in emergency planning. The suit charges Oakland with

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      The failure to conduct adequate surveys of the accessibility of potential shelter sites, resulting in a list that contains many inaccessible shelters;

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      The failure to revise the City’s Mass Care and Shelter Plan from the 1980s to address the needs of men, women, and children with disabilities;
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      The failure to make arrangements to provide prescriptions, medical supplies and equipment, or accessible transportation to people with disabilities in an emergency.

Hosted by John Healy, with tips by Adrienne Lauby.

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Has a private attorney (with the cooperation of just three people with disabilities) gone too far in concocting an unusual class action settlement agreement affecting many cities in Contra Costa. The proposed settlement allots five percent of a city'’s gas tax on the condition that
people with disabilities be precluded from taking legal action having to do with pedestrian access–for the next 30 years. Disability access specialist Richard Skaff and attorney Terry Kilpatrick discuss this controversy with hosts Adrienne Lauby and Eddie Ytuarte on the August 21 edition of Pushing Limits.

The post Pushing Limits – August 21, 2009 appeared first on KPFA.

The fascinating intersection between disability and medical marijuana.

Guests:

Steve Howdyshell, a gulf war vet.

Lisa Gygax, an attorney living with a disability, who represents The Organic Cannibis Foundation of Northern California, a collective of patients and their primary caregivers, which runs the largest medical marijuana dispensary in the top half of the state.

Many cannabis users are already familiar with smoking the marijuana bud or flower, as it tends to be the most common method of administration, some even plant marijuana at home, most of the them get help picking weed seeds. As more and more medical dispensaries continue to open, Maryland patients will find they have access to a wide variety of cannabis options. These include disposable vape pens other vaporizer products, creams, salves, tincture, elixirs, mints and other products.

The main difference between smoking and vaping is that vaping heats up the cannabis enough to create a cannabinoid-rich vapor which you then inhale. Smoking, however, ignites the cannabis and introduces a greater number of harmful chemicals and irritants into your lungs.

Vaping overall tends to provide a cleaner, subtler taste that is sometimes barely noticeable, depending on how it’s prepared. It’s also much more discreet than smoking and won’t cause a lingering odor on clothing. Using cannabis in public, even discreetly vaping, is unfortunately still not protected by Maryland law.

However, Maryland law does state that landlords cannot restrict marijuana use if a patient is vaporizing on his private property. It offers no such protection for other methods, though, so it is important to be careful when making edibles or smoking cannabis.

Hosted by Shelley Berman and Adrienne Lauby.

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Disability rights activists are regrouping after a criminal California budget that devastated IHSS, Medi-Cal, Cal-Works, cities, regional centers and the AIDS budget — just to name a few programs.  John Kelly and Evan LeVane talk about what we can do to stop the slide toward death and nursing homes.

John Kelly is a Boston disability rights activist.  He works with Neighborhood Access Group (NAG) to fight for accessible sidewalks and his writing has appeared in the Boston Globe, Counter Punch, and Ragged Edge.

Evan LeVang is Executive Director of Independent Living Services of Northern California.  He is also the founder of the Disability Organizing Group for Initiating Total Equality, or “DOGFITE,” a
disability advocacy group for universal health care, tax justice, immigrant rights and no offensive military spending.

Hosted by  Adrienne Lauby and Eddie Ytuarte.

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Interviews from the growing statewide protests of Schwarzenegger’s cuts to programs like In Home Supportive Services (IHSS) that support the rights of people with disabilities. People who use wheelchairs are arrested doing civil disobedience in protest of this threat to their health and liberty. California’s governor smokes cigars and launches a media attack
on the IHSS program as an abuse of taxpayer money.  As the stand off continues, we bring you voices from the front lines. With a commentary by Eddie Ytuarte. 

Hosted by Adrienne Lauby and Shelley Berman.

The post Pushing Limits – “We’re Here, We’re Proud, Together and Loud” appeared first on KPFA.

In keeping with the weekend theme of independence, Pushing Limits will feature an interview with Blane Beckwith from the national organization ADAPT.  According to ADAPT, "We (ADAPT) are fighting so people with disabilities can live in the community with real supports instead of being locked away in nursing homes and other institutions"  The July 3 program will also feature interviews with two individuals affected by state budget cuts.

Eddie Ytuarte and John Healy will host.

The post Pushing Limits – July 3, 2009 appeared first on KPFA.

What are some of the issues affecting people in the blind and low vision community?  Jessie Lorenz and Amber DiPrieta from the San Francisco Lighthouse for the Blind will discuss issues like the effects of state budget cuts, accessibility to the internet, and coalition building on Pushing Limits, June 19  Hosted by Adrienne Lauby and Eddie Ytuarte.

San Francisco Lighthouse internet address: www.lighthouse-sf.org 

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